Automatic wig cleaning device



June 23, 1970 R. K. M KENZIE 3,51

AUTOMATIC WIG CLEANING DEVICE Filed April 26, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Ramona K. MocKen zie ATTORNEY June 23, 1970 R. K. M KENZlE ,5

AUTOMATIC WIG CLEANING DEVICE Filed April 26, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ramona K. Mackenzie FIG.6. QM'W ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,516,269 AUTOMATIC WIG CLEANING DEVICE Ramona K. MacKenzie, 1209 10th Ave. SE., Jamestown, N. Dak. 58401 Filed Apr. 26, 1968, Ser. No. 724,576 Int. Cl. D06f 27/00 US. Cl. 68-96 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention comprises an automatic wig cleaning device having a resilient bellows-like chamber, said chamber having cleaning fluid therein, a reciprocating lever compressing said chamber at intervals, said chamber being detachably mounted to said device for removal and replacement and exchange of wigs and cleaning fluid for the cleaning operation, a cover for said chamber for suspending the wig in the fluid in the chamber, a motor powering said lever for compressing the bellows and immersing the Wig in said fluid for cleaning.

This invention relates to cleaning apparatus, more particularly the invention relates to wig cleaning apparatus.

It is an object of the invention to provide a novel wig cleaning device for automatically cleaning wigs which may be inexpensively made and easily operated for cleaning of wigs.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel wig cleaning device having a bellows washing chamber having means for suspending the wig within the chamber and compressing the bellows for immersing and washing the wigs.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel Wig cleaning device which will automatically clean wigs and which includes a detachable cleaning chamber containing cleaning fluid which chamber may be easily removed for replacement of the wigs and/ or cleaning fluid.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel cleaning device which automatically cleans wigs.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the automatic wig cleaning invention.

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the automatic wig cleaning invention.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged side view of the cover and bellows attachment construction for attaching the cover to the upper end of the bellows of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged top view of the cover and bellows attachment construction for attaching the cover to the upper end of the bellows of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the automatic wig cleaning invention.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view of the upper portion of the bellows and cover of the invention taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

Briefly stated, the invention comprises an automatic wig cleaning device having a resilient bellows-like chamber with cleaning fluid within the chamber, a reciprocating lever compressing the chamber at intervals, said chamber being detachably mounted to said device for removal and replacement of the cleaning fluid and wigs, a cover for suspending the wig in the cleaning fluid in the chamber, a motor powering the lever for compressing the bellows chamber for immersing the wig in said fluid for cleaning.

Referring more particularly, to the drawings in FIG. 1, the automatic wig cleaning invention is illustrated as having a base plate 21, with a resilient rubber or resilient plastic bellows-like container 22 positioned upright in a slot 23 in the base plate 21. The bellows-like container 22 is hollow and serves as a cleaning chamber. The slot 23 in the base plate 21 has a rounded or circular inner edge 23 abutting the circular lower edge 24 of the container 22. The slot opens out at the front edge 25 of the base plate and provides an open channel for sliding the bellows-like container from left to right as viewed from FIG. 1, out of the base plate 21.

The bellows container 22 has an upper collar 26 which may be made of relatively rigid material or reinforced by a metal sleeve. A cover 27 has a flat top portion 28, with an annular depending flange 29 surrounding the collar 26.

The cover 27 has four inwardly projecting lugs 30 pro jecting inwardly from the depending flange 29 and which are received four slots 31, respectively, in the sleeve or collar 26 of the bellows to lock the cover to the bellows in substantially airtight relation.

To attach the cover 27 to the collar 26 of the bellows, the cover is placed over the collar 26 causing the lugs to slide into the upper open ends of the channel or slots 31. The slots 31 each have a tapered or angular upper slotted portion 31. Consequently, by turning the cover 27 clockwise, when viewed from FIG. 5, the lugs 30 of the flange of the cover will engage the upper angular edge 32 of the angular slotted portion 31' drawing the lugs 30 and cover downward on to the sleeve or collar 26 until the lugs are parallel with a horizontal slotted portion 31" at the lower end of the angular slotted portion, at which time the lugs by continuing to turn the cover clockwise When viewed from FIG. 5, will slide into the horizontal slotted portion and lock thereby locking the cover to the bellows. To remove the cover the cover will be turned in the opposite direction and lugs 30 will slide out of the horizontal slot portion 31 and engage the lower angular edge 32' of the angular slotted portion urging the lugs and cover upward freeing the cover by the lugs sliding out the open upper ends 31 of the slots 31.

The cover 27 has a hook 33 riveted to the center of the top 28 of the cover by a rivet portion 33. A string 34 is tied at its upper end to the hook 33 and the string 34 is suspended from the cover 27 downwardly into the bellow-like container 22.

The cover 27 also has a rubber flap 35 fixed at one end 35' to the underside of the top 28 of the cover 27, which flap is normally in a horizontal plane as illustrated in solid lines in FIGS. 1 and 6 and is thereby closing or covering or sealing rectangular opening 36 in the top 28 of the cover 27. The cover 27 also has an air exhaust pipe 37 which provides communication with the interior of the bellows container 22.

A lever arm 38 is pivotally mounted at its one end 39 to an upright flange, with its other end 39' positioned on top of the cover 27 and adapted to engage the cover 27 centrally. A motor 40 i fixed to the base 21 with a motor 41 and a disc 42 fixed to the outer end of the shaft 41 whereby when the motor is powered the shaft and disc rotate. A connecting plate 43 has one end pivotally mounted to an edge of the disc 42 and the other end pivotally connected to the lever arm 38, whereby when the motor is powered the disc 42 reciprocates the lever plate 43, causing the lever arm to reciprocate about its pivotal end 39, with the outer end 39 engaging the cover 27 and compressing the bellows 22 from its position shown in solid lines in FIG. 1 to its position shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1, and referred to by numeral 22 thereby causing the bellows 22 to compress and expand.

Each time the bellows 22 compress the lug 44 in the bellows is immersed in conventional wig cleaning fluid 45 within the bellows 22. The cleaning fluid 45 is normally conventional dry cleaning fluid and this fluid is filled to the level in the bellows indicated by the numeral 45.

A the bellows 22 compress and expand up and down as indicated by the double headed arrow 46 in FIG. 1, a pair of opposing projecting flanges 47 and 48 project outwardly from opposite sides of the cover 27 and slide between upright elongated plates 49 and 49' on one side of the bellows and upright elongated plate 50 and 50' on the other side of the bellows. The upright plates 49 and 49', 50 and 50', as illustrated in solid lines in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 5, guide the flanges 47 and 48 so that they move in a straight vertical direction, and the flanges in turn guide the cover 27, and the cover 27 guides the bellows so that the cover and bellows must move in a relatively straight vertical direction when compressing and expanding. The upright plates 49 and 50 are pivotally mounted to the base plate 21 by shafts 56 and 56 and may be pivoted about the vertical axis shafts 56 and 56' from their positions illustrated in solid lines to their positions illustrated in dashed lines. The plates 49 and 50 are locked at their positions illustrated in solid lines for guiding the flanges 47 and 48 by pins 57 and 58.

In order to pivot the plates 49 and 50 outwardly from the position shown in solid line in FIG. to their positions shown in dashed lines in FIG. 5, the pins 57 and 58, slidably mounted in sleeves 59 and 59' and mounted to plates 49 and 50 respectively, must be manually slid upwardly removing the lower ends 57' and 58 from the holes 60 and 60 in the base plate 21, which pins otherwise hold the plates 49 and 50 in their operative position shown in solid lines in FIG. 5. The pins 57 and 58 each have a lateral handle portion 61 and 61' to facilitate sliding the pins upward and downward in the sleeve 59 and 59'.

OPERATION The motor when turned on rotates the disc 42, which reciprocates the plate 43 causing the lever arm 38 to reciprocate which lever arm 38 thereby compresses the cover 27 and bellow 22 thereby immersing the wig 44 in the cleaning fluid in the bellows 22. The lever arm 38 compresses the bellows at repeated intervals thereby repeatedly immersing the wig in the cleaning fluid. The lever arm 38 compresses the bellows to its position shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1 and the lever 38 then moves back upward as the lever arm 38 moves back upward the bellows being of resilient material will reexpand upwardly back into its position shown in solid lines in FIG. 1 following the lever 38.

As the bellows 22 are being compressed the fumes from the cleaning fluid and air in the bellows will be exhausted through the exhaust pipe 37. While the bellows are expanding air will be sucked or drawn in through the opening 36, as the air suction will draw the rubber flap 35 downward to its position shown in dashed lines and indicated by the numeral 35". Air may also be drawn in through the rubber exhaust pipe 37.

The wig 44 to be cleaned will be suspended from the lower end 34' of the string 34 by tying the lower end of the stri g o he head band 51 of the Wig 44. As he lever arm 38 compresse the bellows, the cover will lower the wig 44 from its position shown in solid lines in FIG. 1 to its position shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1, and indicated by numeral 44 thereby immersing the wig in the cleaning fluid 45 and causing the wig to lightly engage the bottom 52 of the bellows while immersed in the fluid 45, thereby lightly Sponging the wig. The cover 27 will engage the wig 44 from the top while the bottom 52 compresses the wig 44 from the bottom with this compressing-sponging action cleaning the wig 44.

It is desirable that the bellows be of sufficiently large diameter in relation to the size of the wig so that the wig in the bellows will not rub against the side of the bellows.

It is contemplated that it may be desirable to shorten the compressing action of lever 38 whereby the wig is compressed by the cover 27 to a lesser extent or not at all, with the compressing action being the wig sponging the bottom 52 of the bellows.

By the compressing action of the bellows 22, the wig 44 will be repeatedly sponged against the bottom of the bellows until the wig is fully cleaned by the cleaning fluid, at which time the motor 41 will be turned off.

When it is desired to remove the wig from the device after cleaning, the bellows 22 and cover 27 will be detached from the device by sliding the pins 57 and 58 upwardly out of the holes 60 and 60 in the base plate 21 by pivoting the plates 49 and 50 outwardly from their position shown in solid lines to their position shown in dashed lines in FIG. 5, thereby freeing the bellows 22 and cover 27 so that the bellows and cover may he slid horizontally from left out of the slot 23 and out from under the lever arm 38 and thereby detached from the device.

When the bellows and cover have been detached the cover may be removed and another wig for cleaning may be attached to the string 34 and the cleaning fluid may be replaced with new cleaning fluid from time to time. Once the new wig has been attached the cover will be centered over the bellows and the wig and cover lowered lowering the wig into the bellows and the cover may be then reattached. The bellows and cover may be slid back into the device to their position illustrated in solid lines in FIG. 1 and the plates 49 and 50 pivoted back to their guiding position and locked by pins 57 and 58.

It is contemplated that the automatic wig cleaning device may be used indoors by having exhaust pipe 37 of sufficient length to extend out of doors.

Thus, it will be seen that a novel portable automatic Wig cleaning device has been provided which will automatically clean wigs by lightly sponging the wigs in cleaning fluid which may be rapidly removed from the cleaning device.

It will be obvious that various changes and departures may be made to the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof and accordingly it is not intended that the invention be limited to that specifically described in the specification or as illustrated in the drawings but only as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A wig cleaning device comprising a horizontal platform means, resilient compressible bellows mounted on said platform means, said bellows including a removable cover, cam means engaging upper portions of said bellows at regular intervals, vertically elongated guideway means mounted on opposite sides of said bellows to maintain said bellows in vertical alignment as said bellows compress, said guideway means detachably engaging said bellows and said cam means detachably engaging upper portions of said bellows with said platform means being open along one vertical side whereby said bellows may be horizontally removed from said cam means, platform means and guideway means.

2. A wig cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein said cover means has hook means mounted centrally 5 6 beneath said cover means for suspending a Wig Within the 2,997,870 8/ 1961 Serra 6896 X bellows. 3,178,913 4/1965 Olson 6896 X 3. A Wig cleaning device according to claim 1 wherein said removable cover has an exhaust conduit mounted FOREIGN PATENTS thereto for exhausting fumes from said bellows. 5 607,449 8/1960 y- References Cited WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Us C1. XR' 43,290 6/1864 Clark 6843 X 68196 2,341,729 2/1944 Lundgren-Jonson 6896 X 10 

